The islanders, also, become too wise for happiness, had lost relish for the harmless and somewhat childish sports in which their simple ancestors had indulged themselves.
May was no longer ushered in by the imaginary contest between the Queen of returning winter and advancing spring; the listeners no longer sympathised with the lively music of the followers of the one, or the discordant sounds with which the other asserted a more noisy claim to attention.

Christmas, too, closed, and the steeples no longer jangled forth a dissonant peal.

The wren, to seek for which used to be the sport dedicated to the holytide, was left unpursued and unslain.

Party spirit had come among these simple people, and destroyed their good humour, while it left them their ignorance.

Even the races, a sport generally interesting to people of all ranks, were no longer performed, because they were no longer interesting.